Almost nothing leaves your browser.

Your postcode

The postcode check runs entirely in your browser. The lookup table is part of the page you already downloaded. Your postcode is never sent to us, never sent to anyone else, and never stored. You can confirm that by turning off your internet connection after the page loads and using it anyway. It still works.

What you type into the checkers

The same. What you pay for your energy or your rent is compared with a figure already on the page, in your browser, and is gone the moment you close the tab.

The assistant on the front page

Most of what you ask it never leaves your device. It recognises the common questions and your postcode on its own, in the page, and answers from data you have already downloaded.

If it cannot work out what you meant, and only then, the words you typed are sent to a language model running on Cloudflare's network so it can classify what you are asking for. It is asked one question: which of a short list of topics did this person mean. It is not asked for, and is not permitted to give, any price or figure. Every number you are shown comes from this site's own checked data, never from the model.

If you send a photo of a bill

This is the one thing that leaves your browser, and it only happens if you deliberately attach a photo and then confirm it on a screen that says what will happen. Be aware of what is on a bill: your name, your address, your account number and your meter number.

What happens to it: the image goes to a model on Cloudflare's network, which reads the figures printed on it and returns them. Then it is gone. It is not written to any database, any file store or any log, because this site has no database, no file store and no logging attached to that function. Cloudflare's published position is that it does not train models on what you send and does not retain it unless the site connects a storage service, and this site connects none.

We never see it either. There is no inbox, no dashboard and no copy kept anywhere we could look at, even if we wanted to.

If you would rather not, you do not have to. Every bill prints the two numbers that actually matter, how many units you used in a year and what you paid, and typing those two in gets you exactly the same answer.

Cookies and analytics

We use Google Analytics to see which pages people actually use, so we know what to improve. It sets cookies, and because it does, it only runs if you say yes. The first time you visit you are asked, plainly, with an Accept and a Reject button that are equally easy to press. Until you choose, nothing loads and no cookie is set. Reject and the site is exactly the same, with no analytics, no cookies and no tracking. You can change your mind any time from the Cookie choices link in the footer.

If you accept, Google Analytics tells us things like how many people visited, which pages they read, roughly what country they came from and what device they used. It is about the pages, not about you: we never see your name, and we do not use it for advertising or sell anything about you. If you would rather it did not, reject, and you lose nothing.

Your choice itself is remembered in your browser's local storage rather than a cookie, so even remembering your answer sets nothing we can see. The only other thing kept on your device is your last chosen electricity region, so a table opens where you left it. Both live in local storage, never reach us, and clearing your browser data removes them. We run no advertising scripts of any kind.

The update list

You can give us your email address to get updates. This is the one thing on the site we store, and only if you type it in and tick the box. Here is exactly what happens to it.

What we store. Your email address, the moment you signed up, the exact wording you agreed to, and which page you signed up from. Nothing else. We do not ask for your name and there is no profile.

Why. To email you what you asked for: an alert when a tracked bill changes, the odd note about a new tool, and genuinely useful deals and voucher codes. That is the only use. Your address is never sold, rented or shared.

Who can see it. Right now it sits in Cloudflare storage attached to this site, which we run. To actually send the emails we will connect a mailing provider, and when we do, that provider is named on this page and the sign up page before it handles a single address. It will process your email only to send you what you asked for.

Leaving. Every email carries a one click unsubscribe. Following it removes you at once. We keep a note that your address unsubscribed, and nothing more, so it cannot be added back to the list by accident. You can also email [email protected] to be removed, or to ask what we hold about you, or to have it deleted entirely.

The honest bit. The emails are being set up, so there may be a short wait before the first one. Your address is safely on the list from the moment you sign up, and if we ever cannot deliver what we promised, we will not have sold or misused it in the meantime.

Links out

Source links go to regulators and government sites. Some broadband and mobile links are affiliate links, which means the provider knows you arrived from here. They do not tell us who you are, and we do not ask. See About for how that works.

The formal bits, in one place

UK data protection law says a privacy notice has to tell you certain specific things. Most sites bury them. Here they are.

• Who is responsible. Tariff Tracker is run by a sole trader in England. Contact [email protected]. There is no data protection officer, because the law does not require one here.
• What is processed, and why. Only one thing: a photo of a bill, if you choose to send one, so that the figures printed on it can be read back to you. Nothing else you do on this site is processed by us at all.
• The lawful basis. Your consent, which you give by confirming on the screen that describes what happens. You can decline and still get the same answer by typing two numbers.
• Who else sees it. Cloudflare, whose network runs the function and the model that reads the image. Nobody else. Cloudflare's published position is that it does not train on what is sent and does not retain it unless a storage service is connected, and none is.
• Where it goes. Cloudflare processes at the edge location nearest you, which for a UK visitor is normally in the UK, but we cannot promise that for every request. If that matters to you, do not send a photo.
• How long it is kept. It is not kept. It exists for the length of one request and is then gone. There is no database, no file store and no logging of content attached to that function.
• Your rights. You can withdraw consent simply by not sending anything, and you can ask us for a copy of, or the deletion of, anything we hold about you. In practice we hold nothing, so there is nothing to send or delete, and we will tell you that plainly rather than pretending otherwise.
• No automated decisions. Nothing here makes a decision about you. The model reads figures. The comparison is arithmetic, and the arithmetic is shown to you so you can check it.
• Complaints. Write to [email protected]. We will acknowledge within 30 days and tell you the outcome without undue delay. If you are not satisfied you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint or on 0303 123 1113.

Questions

[email protected]